The threatening steps of the competitors, the puzzling laws, the compliance with the European standards and our desire to grow a business send us to a crazy race in search for creativity. We want our brand promotion idea to be innovative because we think they have the essential and decisive triggers of growth. The TV and radio stations, newspapers, magazines, indoor and outdoor advertising are the channels we use to communicate more and better about our products and services. After all, everything seems to be very simple, and we smile and put the champagne on ice. It is a simple equation: a little effort sends your company to the sky! But in two months only, we notice that our products and services no longer sell that much and, moreover, they go down fast. This is when we start giving money to the media again, to bring in even more publicity. If this is how things work then we shall pay! We don’t want to ruin our business!?
Let us change the angle: over the last 15 years, the amount of information disseminated via various publicity channels has increased by over 20 times. That does not mean that the storage and analysis capacity of target groups had addressed by our products and services increased the same. The exposure to abundant messages via so many channels made your target audience build a solid defense wall. Almost every family in the urban area has a TV set and access to over 24 channels, listens to FM/AM radio, can buy various magazines and newspapers, and is overwhelmed with the outdoor advertising, promotions, samplings, tastings, etc. Moreover, in a supermarket we can find over 15,000 products; there are thousands of trademark registered at the Intellectual Property Office; the pharma market counts over 1,000 products, and the car market records an accelerated development. This crazy pace gave birth to many communication forms and techniques, because all the companies want to set their position in the consumer’s mind for good. This context makes each company find a unique, innovative and resourceful way to build its communication strategies.
The scientists discovered that humans can accept only a limited amount of information and sensations. Once exceeded this limit, the brain deletes all the information stored and creates barriers and filters. This raises the following question: how do we get inside the consumer’s mind?
To create campaigns with long term impact, we must always be in contact with our target audience, know how their perception of our brands change, most of all, we must know the metrics of their needs. Moreover, it is good to acknowledge how precious is the content already stored in the buyer’s minds: information, concepts, perceptions, beliefs, social, economic and cultural elements, etc.
Any attempt of overloading our target audience with endless information is both difficult and risky. Is much easier to get information about the needs, perceptions and beliefs of our consumers and use it to create products and build brand communication strategies, instead of forcing our audience to perceive, understand and store new and unfriendly information. We need to reach them through a “natural” process (i.e. based on a simple and natural perception). The more we push things, the higher are the costs, and the process becomes unprofitable and inefficient.
Beyond creativity: when we want to build a successful and profitable brand, we must cross the borders of creativity, innovation and product quality; we must create the context that sells our products and services.
Ciprian Dron
CEO Unity Group